hillary clinton will go to myanmar. the first secretary of state to touch down on what used to be called burma in half a century. plus what she tells chuck todd about chelsea's new gig. >> i got to ask about my new colleague. >> yes. >> what did you think when she said i want to become a member of the fourth estate? this side of the line here? >> well, i was a little surprised. but she decided to go for it. and i'm very excited for her. and also the fbi, is it being called to penn state? plus hollywood bombshell. after 30 years a yacht captain tells nbc news "the today show" he knows who really killed natalie wood. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. herman cain continues to make headline, perhaps not the kind he wants. his latest? he says he doesn't need to read up on foreign policy to be president. it's a platform that seemed a little familiar. a little shall we say cartoonish to us? >> who knows every detail of

every country of every situation on the planet? nobody. we need a leader, not a reader. >> i've narrowed your choices down to five unthinkable options. each will cause untold misery. >> i pick number three. >> you don't even want to read them first? >> i was elected to lead, not to read. >> well, we were neither elected to read or lead but we're right here. herman cain is where we begin our daily fix today with msnbc contributor and manager editor post politics.com mr. chris alissa. hi, andrea. >> hi. you are the ironman. >> we're making it. >> it's friday. let's talk about herman cain. he's a motivational speaker. that's the way he's been making his living. but the slogans, we don't need a leader -- we need a leader, not a reader, whatever the slogan is, does that qualify you to be president of the united states? >> it makes for good late night tv, it makes you laugh. he's entertaining. but while politics is often the

balance between entertainment and serious policy, nobody wants to eat broccoli all the time. we all like ice cream. you can't only serve ice cream. that's not what being president is about. you have to show that you have policy. this is the same week that herman cain spent 18 seconds before he uttered a single word when asked whether he agreed or disagreed with president obama's policy in libya. so it's all of a piece. context matters here. this is why it is not a good moment for herman cain. >> the other thing that is very new with herman cain is he becomes the first republican of this year's -- this election cycle to request and receive secret service protection. >> right. >> that is a very big deal. we don't know what the background is in terms of whether or not there were specific threats. there don't necessarily have to be. he needs to make that request to the secret service under homeland security, then it gets cleared by a committee on capitol hill. and it has been granted. but there is an interesting shall we say interesting

quotation from a chief spokesman to the "washington post" which is saying that they wanted it partly because of the media. reporters. >> my colleagues last night at about 8:00 last night reported that j.d. gordon, the campaign spokesman, explained that it was in response to there have been several incidents actually including one with one of my deputies, a guy named aaron blake, a guy who works for me, of reporters and cain private security clashing. j.d. gordon said at least in part in response to that, those kind of interactions, they wanted this. now, as you say, i think you always have to be careful here. we don't know the full picture. we don't know about threats to mr. cain or his campaign. and so i'm always cautious. but j.d. gordon did say at least in part it's a response to what's been a less than cordial relationship between the press and his private security. >> while we don't know what else

may be going on from the candidate's perspective, aside from security, the secret service doesn't have the c job of holding up a reporters. but when they create a cordon around a candidate that has the effect of holding off reporters number one and questions. and number two, it is worth millions of dollars to an out of luck campaign. >> absolutely. to not have to hire private security, right? >> and the movements. this gives them movement place a to place b. the secret service takes care of all of that. suddenly they have a campaign infrastructure which is the understandable security component but it also is a huge plus for a striving campaign. >> no question. >> let's talk about the other candidate in the news is newt gingrich. what we are now learning courtesy of bloomberg in the "washington post" and other reporters is that he had a huge role in terms of the gingrich group, the money that he was able to earn advocating for things that are very controversial with conservative republicans, including the prescription drug benefit which was unpaid for. >> we found out earlier this week at.6 million according to

bloomberg -- >> we've got 1.8 million. >> 1.8 million for freddie mac. $37 million to the center for health transformation. another gingrich aligned group from as astra zeneca, blue cross blue shield. all of these things remind us and voters that newt gingrich has been around for a very long time and he is fundamentally a creature of washington. why did all these people pay him all this money? i know newt has said it's for his historical perspective. that's what he had to say earlier in the week. but we know that it's because he knows how washington works. >> he knows who to call. >> that's not necessarily what republican primary voters have said they want this time around. >> we'll have more to that coming up with barney frank in a minute. thank you, chris. have a great weekend. get some rest. >> i'm try. turning now to occupy wall street, in new york city where the movement of course began, thousands turned out yesterday to protest at least 300 were arrested. howard wolfe new york city's

deputy mayor for government affairs and communications joins us now from 30 rock. howard, it's great to see you. thank you very much. how would you assess how this city handled yesterday's protest and the police involvement? >> exceptionally well. the ows movement said that there were going to be tens of thousands of folks in the street yesterday protesting. we were prepared for that number. it would have been a large number. it was considerably smaller than that. but still a lot of people at the height some number in the thousands. there were a number of arrests. most of them were people who planned on getting arrested. in a couple of instances there were violence. a couple of members of the ows movement attacked police officers. a couple of hospitalizations. but by and large, it went fairly well. the ows folks wanted to delay the opening bell on wall street. they were unsuccessful in doing that. they wanted to shut down the brooklyn bridge. they were unsuccessful in doing that. this is a city that knows how to deal with large protests. and by and large for the 8 million people who live here, the city went on as usual.

>> now, i of course was not there. i was on the air yesterday. this is of course the daily news. that's not the kind of picture -- not the kind of headlines you want out there. but what you're suggesting is that some peel wanted to get confrontational and you're confident that police handled it as best they could. >> well, that was someone -- the picture there was someone who -- >> was one of the original leaders. >> was throwing a battery or batteries at officers, had been arrested for previous times. and yes, there were a couple of instances. and that is not a pleasant picture to look at, but that was the anomale. >> let's talk about going forward. what is the next plan? we know the mayor and you all decided that zuccotti park had to be cleaned overnight. but they have now come back but in much smaller numbers. now going forward, what is this going to turn into in the days, weeks, months ahead? >> you know, unclear. we wanted to be sure that if people wanted to protest in the

city, wanted to exercise their first amendment rights that they would have every right to do that. this is a place where we take the first amendment very seriously, and we want people to be in a position to protest if they want to. so zuccotti park is open. it's open 24 hours a day if you want to come there and protest, if you want to organize, if you want to agitate you are welcome to do that. what you are not welcome to do is camp there, is bring tents and tarps and encampment. that you will not be allowed to do. but in terms of exercising free speech and organizing agitating, complaining, whatever you want, you are welcome to do that in this city. and you can do that in zuccotti park. >> howard wolfson, great to see you again. thanks for joining us today. up next, barney frank unplugged on newt and a lot more. and 30 years later, was it murder or an accidental drowning? the natalie woods story. and you can now follow the show at face book.com/mitchell reports. for such dastardly deed.

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as new information emerges about newt gingrich's corporate clients since he left congress he's taking aim at his critics, one in particular. >> barney frank doesn't believe in the business community. he doesn't believe in the private sector. he thinks everything's the same. so he thinks that what he does as a congressman in charge of writing a bill is the same as what a private citizen does and vice versa. and it just tells you how far to the left barney frank's thinking is. >> and here he is, bar know frank. you get equal time. that was newt gingrich with our friend greta. so your turn. how far left are you? >> well, that's just blatant nonsense. of course i work very closely with the private sector. i'm very proud for example that the fishermen in massachusetts, a very tough private sector entity, are very pleased with my

work for them. i have had good relations with many of the financial institutions with the community banks and others. that's just an example of mr. gingrich saying things that aren't remotely close to true. of course there are differences between the private sector and the public sector. i understand why mr. gingrich is angry at me. it's now clear he was apparently getting $30,000 a month from freddie mac for many years. i gather he first said he was a historian making him as i said the world's highest-paid historian in history. and it ended. i just learned. this in 2008. and it ended because of legislation that was enacted when i became chairman of the committee that put fannie mae and freddie mac into conservatorship. the basic point here is that when the republicans controlled congress for 12 years from 1995 through 2006 they adopted no legislation to restrain fannie mae and freddie mac or to cover up sub prime loans. we know one of the reasons was

newt gingrich was helping to talk them out of it. it wasn't until 2007. earlier in that period i wasn't for the legislation. i changed my position. but i was irrelevant first a house run by newt gingrich and then tom delay. in 2007 when chris dodd and i first became chairs of the committee, that's when the legislation was adopted. it's now very clear. we gave the secretary of the treasury under george bush, who acknowledges that we were the ones who did it, the power to put them into conservatorship. he put them into conservatorship in 2008. and newt lost $30,000 a month. so i understand why he's displeased. >> by the way he's up in your next of the woods today. he's at the coop at harvard and also speaking at the institute of politics doing a book signing. i know massachusetts doesn't have a presidential primary but apparently books are still on the agenda. i want to show you a few of the headlines today. because newt is definitely in the headlines today. but it's not because of his campaigning. it's because of his former finances as a very successful businessman. he really created quite a number

of organizations, one of them is the gingrich group. he says that he wasn't a lobbyist, number one. number two that he doesn't know how much money he made from freddie mac because the money went to the gingrich group. does that pass the smell test? >> no. well, if it does it shows how prosperous he was. because we now know what was at least 1.6 million. if he can't remember a single client who gave him 1.6 five years ago, then the money was pouring. in but the fact is mr. gingrich says he's a businessman. he produced no good or service. what he did was to influence public policy. that's an entirely legitimate thing to do. but he was not a private businessman in the sense that he had a good idea about a product that would meet people's needs or a service that would meet the private sectors needs. he got paid. i heard him being interviewed. they said how come you got so much money? he said well i was a former speaker. being a former speaker doesn't do much if you are helping people with their travel plans, if you're helping people by

producing an iphone. it helps if you're trying to influence the congress. and this notion that it was the gingrich group and not him is nonsense. the gingrich group was in fact him. so the man is just lying. he's been caught at it. and nothing -- i think the most hypocritical thing i've ever seen was this clip of him in 2008 denouncing senator obama as he then was for taking money from fannie mae and freddie mac, when gingrich was getting far more money at this very minute than president obama was. >> what do you think he did to earn $37 million which is now reported in today's "washington post" in bloomberg from the healthcare industry in advocating for the prescription drug benefit and for other changes that benefitted the healthcare industry? >> well, we can look at the results. when the prescription drug bill went through, and while i'd like to see us older people have a drug prescription program when we're not working, he got it done in a very particular way.

the department of veterans affairs bargains with the drug companies and gets reduction in the price of prescription drugs because they are such a large buyer. but in the part d medicare program that mr. gingrich obviously worked for, that's not there. so the federal government and the recipients are paying full price for those drugs because the republicans who ran the congress and george bush now we know with newt gingrich's enthusiastic help forbade the federal government to bargain for lower prices. so my guess is that if you look at the price increases they got, if you look at how much more drugs would cost under medicare than the department of veterans affairs where we can bar garngs he earned that $37 million many times over. >> forgive me. i don't know how you voted on pizza as a vegetable. but i got to ask you about the authorization bill, the appropriations bill where the house of representatives pushed back on agriculture regs that administration wanted which would have made school lunches

healthier. explain to me, barney, how pizza is a vegetable. >> well, i can't do that. i think the answer is that there are some members of congress who are vegetables. and they were easily influenced to vote for it. here was the problem. the republicans for all their talk about openness took three separate appropriations bills, put them all together and didn't open any of them to amendment. so we had the bill for the departments of housing and transportation, we had the bill from the department of agriculture, and one other, my rick perry moment they put them all three together. i forget which was the third. but the problem was we didn't have a chance to vote yes or no. and there were some very important things in the hud bill for the districts i represent. on the other hand, frankly, far worse to me than the redefinition of tomato paste was that they deliberately reduced the funding that we need for the commodities futures trading commission which is the regulator of derivatives. now, the republicans wanted to give them unbelievably less money next year than this year.

this is the agency that we put in charge of regulating derivatives, of aig, of all of these terrible things that went unregulated. and the republicans unfortunately because they control the house, they bargained with the senate, the senate tried to give them an increase. the republicans wanted to cut them. they wound up being level funded. so i was very torn on that bill. and the problem was yes, i did vote for it in the end because there were some things in there that were very important in terms of some housing matters for public housing and elsewhere. but it is another repudiation of the republicans promise that we never got a chance to vote on that particular amendment. it was stuck in there in committee and made part of a three-bill package. you mad to vote yes or no. so a lot of things got through that shouldn't have gotten through. >> congressman that is in perhaps one minute the best explanation of everything that is wrong with congress right now that i've ever heard. all wrapped up in one little moment. thank you very much, congressman barney frank. >> thank you. and is mitt romney blowing it in iowa? the politico briefing comes up

next. meanwhile overseas today, british prime minister david cameron and german chancellor angela merkel issued a joint call for decisive action to deal with europe's debt crisis. the to downplayed their differences over a proposed bank tax, part of germany's attempt to impose greater fiscal discipline in the eurozone. and italy's new premiere, prime minister mario monti, comfortably won his second confidence vote in as many days, fully empowering his new government. he is pursuing a number of reform priorities while trying to brace his country for painful austerity measures. the u.s. birth rate is down for the third year in a row. experts are blamg the bad economy. birth rates hit an all-time high of 4.3 million in 2007 just before the recession took hold but then fell to just a little over 4 million in 2010.

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holding a town hall in washington, iowa. it's the third of five events the former pennsylvania senator is holding in the hawkeye state today. mitt romney will be a no-show in iowa this weekend when social conservatives hold a candidates cattle call. who's he afraid of? alex burns is "politico's" national political reporter and joins me now. thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> why isn't he going to iowa? is this part of his decision? has he made his decision not to make a big play for iowa or is he still deciding? and is it just that he doesn't want to be in the group he wants to go on his own? >> mitt romney has been trying to have it both ways in iowa for some time. and this event this weekend, this social conservative forum saturday night, is sort of a perfect example of the iowa -- the kind of iowa event he wants to avoid. it's hosted by bob vanderplatz, prominent social conservative activist there mike huck bi's campaign chairman in the state in 2008. so sort of automatically if mitt romney showed up he would be on unfriendly territory. he's been trying to play in that

state on his own terms. >> terry branstead the governor has made a point of saying he needs to be there, to show up, to compete. he's holding his own in the polls in iowa, romney is, in contrast in fact to michele bachmann and others who spent a whole lot of time there and earned single digits. but does he have to at some point show them some love? >> i think that he does. and i think that the governor's comments are pretty good example of the con againsts of not doing that. governor branstead is a very mainstream figure who i think would like to see mitt romney compete in iowa and frankly recognizes that it would be good for iowa if a mainstream republican candidate ultimately won the caucuses there. mitt romney is holding his own in the polls, as you said. but we're starting to see other people get closer and closer. the bloomberg poll earlier this week showed a four-way tie for first place with gingrich and herman cain and ron paul up there giving him a run for his money. >> and speaking of gingrich, the richard land from the southern

baptists had suggested that no gingrich needs to make a speech of his life to address the evangelical movement and his personal life, his divorces. the john f. kennedy baptist convention speech. that's sort of an interesting idea. we've got that up there on the screen what richard land had said. >> i think it goes to sort of the central question of the newt gingrich campaign at this point. that do republican voters already know and recognize his flaws and they're willing to look past them at this point? or have people kind of forgotten in the last 13 years the reasons why newt gingrich was booted out by his own party back in the 1990s? and if the answer is not the one newt gingrich is looking for, i think richard land's advice might come in handy. >> okay. alex burns, thank you very much for our poe lit toe briefing today. just ahead, the secret business dealings of newt gingrich with hard ball's chris matthews right here. plus the feds take a closer look at penn state.

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we'll give you the difference on a walmart gift card. save money. live better. walmart. topping the headlines right now, the lapd is reopening a 30-year investigation into actress natalie woods' death after receiving new information that she drowned off the coast of southern california in november of 1981 while boating with her husband, actor robert wagner. the captain of that ship spoke out on nbc's "today show" this morning blaming woods' husband for her death and admitted to lying about events that took place back then. >> i made mistakes by not telling the honest truth in a police report. >> the detective leading the investigation now is scheduled to speak at a news conference later today. the idaho man suspected of firing shots at the white house last friday claims he is jesus and that president obama is the anti-christ. that in an internet video.

oscar romero ortega hernandez was charged in federal court with attempting to assassinate the president. if convicted he could face life in prison. oklahoma state university is in mourning today after a tragic plane crash killed the woman's basketball coach and assistant coach while they were on a recruiting trip in arkansas. two other people including the pilot died as well when their plane crashed in perry county, arkansas. and syracuse university has placed associate head men's basketball coach bernie fine on administrative leave while police investigate new claims of sexual molestation years ago from two former ball boys now grown men. offering support for his colleague today, head basketball coach jim bayheim released a statement saying that matter was investigated back in 2005 and that allegations were unfounded. he said "i have never seen or witnessed anything to suggest that he would have been involved in any of the activities alleged. had i seen or suspected anything i would have taken action.

bernie has my full support". now to that other sex abuse scandal, of course, the one rocking check athletics. penn state's new acting athletic director spoke to the media for the first time today. he pledged to run a clean athletics program. >> no matter what they say about me being an insider, as you watch what i do and watch how this university behaves you will know and appreciate that i'm about doing the right thing. >> nbc's peter alexander has been following all of the developments at state college, pennsylvania and joins us now. peter, what have we seen today so far? and what do we know about other victims out there? i know you've been reporting on all of this. >> reporter: those are both good questions. we will begin with a man you just had on the screen, that is david joiner a former board member here at penn state university. he is now the acting athletic director making his first public comments since this scandal broke and effectively saying that he views the athletic department as being in line with any other academic unit going forward, acknowledging while the

university and its sports program may have lost some of its luster that it's his effort going forward to make sure that it regains its proud identity here. also today it's important to note that nbc news first reported that morning that university has now officially appointed a new president, the 17th president of this school is a man by the name of rodney e k erickson. he replaced spanier who was replaced last week concerning questions about when he knew details about the allegations of jerry sandusky. nbc news has spoken to several lawyers who say that jerry sandusky's seem seem end denials that he did anything wrong has led many new victims not included among the eight in the indictment to come forward. among them one of the victims apparently told his attorney that authorities told him that he is victim number 11. >> and professors are speak out now, professor michael barabay

in the "new york times" and also to our colleague, mike tell isakoff,this is what he had to say. >> this must have been an open secret. there's another bunch of people who aggressively didn't want to know. like la la la la. i don't want to know. it's so horrible that if it's so true i don't want to know about it. which is a different kind of thing than playing ignorance. it's a little more complicated. >> a lot more complicated, isn't it, peter? >> reporter: it certainly is. and also the viability of the second mile, that's jerry sandusky's children's charity, is now really up in the air. nbc news just got off the phone with state farm insurance and bank of america. both of them as well as another insurance company say that they have suspended charitable donations to that charity going forward. so it remains to be seen what will happen there. >> peter alexander, thank you so much for all of the information from penn state today. and for the first time in 50 years, an american secretary of state will be going to myanmar or burma trying to encourage more progress in the land that

has held noble loweriate aun sung su chi under house arrest. she states she is now willing to participate in politics for the first time. nbc's chief correspondent chuck todd traveling with the president in bali, sneesh gentlema -- indonesia. >> a couple of big announcements in indonesia here as the president gets ready to wrap up and start his final day here on asia pacific trip. the president announced a big deal with boeing who will sell more airplanes to indonesia than any deal boeing's ever had out of the united states. the president was there for the announcement and touted it as a potential way to create more jobs in the united states. but the other big news, of course, was his announcement that president will send secretary of state hillary clinton to myanmar, formerly known as burma, to get an up close and personal look to see if some of the changes they've

been making sort of to enter -- re-enter the world community are taking hold, are for real. so she's going to go there next month. i had a chance to sit down, talk with her about that. but also talk with her about a lot of other things going around around the globe, including syria. and she had a blunt assessment of what's going on there right now. >> let's start with the news of the day, myanmar, burma. what are the next concrete steps? >> part of why i'm going is to make my own evaluation as to how serious and sincere they are. we are encouraged by some of the steps that they've taken. but they have to do more. and we've consistently said that. >> what is that more? >> well, they have to release all political prisoners. i mean, that just is a condition. they need to begin to look at how they resolve these ethnic conflicts that have driven tens of thousands of burmese of

different ethnicities into ref refugee status. they have to have a real electoral system with an open door to political parties and free expression. i mean, this is about whether they are on a path to democracy. >> let me do a little bit of a global whip around. let me start with syria. i know you've been on this trip. a lot of things happening in syria. can you envision a scenario where it's not going to take the world community either the united nations to have to do something military? >> yes. i think there could be a civil war with a very determined and well-armed and eventually well-financed opposition that is if not directed by certainly influenced by defectors from the army. we're already seeing that. something that we hate to see because we are in favor of a peaceful protest and a non-violent opposition. but the way the assad regime has responded has provoked people into taking up arms against

them. so i think that what the arab league has done, what turkey has said, has far more weight on opinion within the government and within the society that are those of us who are pretty far away. >> andrea, she also said that she doesn't envision sort of a libya-like situation where the united states or a coalition of nato would use a u.n. resolution to get involved militarily. for now they would like to see turkey and the arab league take the lead. andrea, reporting here from bali, indonesia, i will see you back in the states real soon. >> and thanks to chuck todd who's been up all night on our time frame, at least, in indonesia. and another seismic shift meanwhile back here in the race for the republican nomination as we watch the rise of newt gingrich and the further unraveling some would say of herman cain. chris matthews is the host of msnbc's "hardball" and author of the new book, jack kennedy, elusive hero. >> number three. just made number three in the

"new york times." >> fantastic. against a lot of tough competition. >> right behind steve jobs and an o'reilly book. >> well, listen. up and climbing. keep going. >> thank you. >> let's talk about somebody who would be president or wants to be president, newt gingrich. all of the examination now about $37 million on healthcare alone. gingrich inc. you could call it. he says he's not a lobbyist. but what is a lobbyist? >> someone who writes a lobbying campaign. clearly a washington campaign. that's his job to be an expert on washington. but he's done basically what anybody does who's out there with a shingle up in washington as you know. consultants, lawyers, pr people, they all have different titles. basically what they do is they offer people a guidance through washington, through the channels of power. i think it must be very disturbing to mitt romney who's been running for president now for several years in fact full time to find himself even with somebody with such heavy baggage as newt gingrich. serial marriages, beg reprimanded by the united states congress, basically pushed out

of the speakership, a lobbyist in effect. and all that and he's running even. that's the strong message of the republican conservatives. they clearly want an alternative to mitt romney. >> herman cain meanwhile riding high. and yet it seems from -- let me show you a clip. because this is sort of herman cain as motivational speaker. does that make him qualified to be president of the united states? this is herman cain. >> who knows every detail of every country of every situation on the planet? nobody. a leader is supposed to make sure we work on the right problems. we assign the right priority. surround yourself with good people. put together plans and lead! [ cheers and applause ] >> we've got plenty of experts. and a leader knows how to use those experts. we need a leader, not a reader. >> so he doesn't need to know anything. he just needs to go to the

experts. >> well, i mean, i think that's not really true. because arthur schlesinger, the great historian, said that politics is essentially a learning profession. you have to learn it. it's the reason why people reach a certain maturity and choose to run for president. they know how to lead people. all these things are true. he has enormous self-confidence. he has no jewish guilt or catholic guilt. i wish i was as guilt-free as this guy. he offers statements like i've never done anything inappropriate in my life. he states things like this with complete confidence? is there any veracity to a guy who says i don't speak cuban? it would be informative to know that they speak spanish in cuba. the main political force behind our movement towards going into iraq was something called the neoconservative movement. be nice to know these things. he hasn't paid attention to libya in crisis and all those days of how it worked. he seemed to be very uninformed on that. the man doesn't read the newspaper. and that is really damning. not to be informed on something

to call bekystan is one thing. not to read the news on the major events of our time is a problem, i think in my opinion. >> it's just one man's opinion. thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. >> great performance on "the good life". chris matthews at his best. thank you. and of course don't miss hardball" weeknights at 7:00 eastern on msnbc. ♪ you, you ain't alone ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home ♪

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d hay te gfrgudiar n d d t lee coming up on "news nation" at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. we are following breaking news. in just 15 minutes the los angeles sheriff's department will hold a news conference to explain why it chose to reopen the investigation into the death of natalie woods. she died 30 years ago. woods' death was ruled a drowning at the time. after she fell overboard on a yacht. the captain of that yacht now alleges that woods' famous husband, robert wagner the actor, he claims he's responsible for her death. we'll bring you the latest from this incredible news conference. plus "the boston globe" reports some of mitt romney's

staffers when he was governor purchased their company hard drives and wiped out e-mails. the report has resulted in a legal back and forth that now involves the dnc. i'm talk with one of the reporters who broke that big political story. today the fda revoked the drus of astin as a drug for breast cancer saying the drus exposes patients to serious side effects like high blood pressure and hemorrhaging with no proven benefits. we have the chief of the american society of clinical oncologists. thank you very much for joining us. we know you have a deep understanding of this. why did the fda make this decision? because we are already hearing of course from patients with met static breast cancer who say that benefits outweigh the risks. >> sure. so that's exactly what the fda is weighing when they make a decision about initial approval of a drug, and then when they re-evaluate new kefd that's come online with regard to whether the drug should remain on the

market. they're weighing the risks of taking the drug and all patients who receive the drug are subject to risks against the potential benefits of that drug. and in the case of avastin, the initial clinical trials of the drug in women with breast cancer suggested that there was a substantial benefit from avastin with really a reasonable and very acceptable risk profile. that led to its initial approval using a mechanism called accelerated approval for a drug that looks particularly promising where the fda is trying to get that drug to women with breast cancer. the followup of an accelerated approval requires additional studies be done by the company who makes avastin to actually prove that it is effective with more evidence than the initial study. and what happened in this particular case is that the further studies that were done with avastin in women with

breast cancer failed to show the same level -- the same degree of benefit that the initial studies showed, yet the side effects were still there. and in weighing those potential side effects against what really looks like if anything a very small potential benefit, the fda ultimately came out on the side of saying, well, these risks could be severe. they don't outweigh the potential benefits. we should really take this off the market. >> doctor, it still can be prescribed or doctors can still use it off the shelf because other cancers can still be treated with avastin. so some women will still get this treatment but it's very expensive and insurers will not pay thousands of thousands of dollars a year for the cost. so isn't this really hurting the women who can least afford it? >> well, it's only hurting women if in fact the drug the drug is effective. but what the totality of

evidence shows at least in breast cancer avastin does not appear to be effective. yet it does have side effects. now, the druggist very well-tolerated when we compare it to various other types of cancer treatment. but there are some rare and serious side effects that in the absence of a clear benefit to women with breast cancer it really doesn't make sense to keep it on the market for that particular use. now, that said, as you pointed out, this doesn't mean avastin is being taken off the market all together. the drug does have effectiveness that's been clearly proven in a variety of other types of cancer including colon cancer, kidney cancer, lung cancer, and others. and it will still be available to physicians to prescribe to their patients with those diseases. and if they choose to prescribe is to women with breast cancer, it's still available. you're absolutely right, though. a payer, an insurance company, can choose if they wish to not

cover a drug that is not been sanctioned by the fda for use in that particular situation. >> dr. mirapol, thank you very much for your explanations. it's going to be a controversial, very emotional subject, of course. subject of . thank you. who had the worst week in washington? a lot of candidates. that's next on "andrea mitchell report reports". a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal.

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who the worst week in washington? chris joins us and clearly not you because you did a great job. >> thank you. i got to hang out with you. very fun. >> we are talking herman cain. >> there were a lot of good options. you could have gone with newt gingrich. a lot of revelations that are not helpful to him. i decided herman cain. the non-answer on libya. >> pretty dramatic. >> if you remember that video, he thought about it and started to talk and he had to stop and

say that was another one. let me start over. the still i never got a great answer for did he or did he not offer henry kissinger. they say he was joking, but taken together, it looks like his 15 minutes of fame are over. >> they are saying it wasn't to hold back the media. >> meanwhile our friend chris matthews had a star term we referred to earlier. >> the third sign of the apocalypse, you guys working together. >> only on something we believe in. >> the ex-congressman and the 1 that flipped from republican to democrat and he is looking for a campaign he can win. >> for represents him and we want to offer you a story. >> about him? >> it's a think piece about the next generation of candidates. >> really? you have a headline for me too?

your sweat is showing. >> chris matthews with alan cummings and someone playing a good imitation. a whole new career. don't leave us yet. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." i don't know if it's a recurring role, but tamron hall has a look at news nation. >> good to see you. have a great weekend. big breaking news at the top of the hour. any minute now the los angeles sheriff's department will hold a major news conference to explain why they reopened the investigation into the death of hollywood legend natalie wood who died third years ago. we will bring you that live. the boston globe reports some of mitt romney's staffer when he was governor performed hard drives and wiped out the e-mails. why? that report resulted in a legal back and forth that involves the dnc. i will talk with one of the reporter who is broke the story. you may have heard about the

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>> right now on "news nation," breaking news out of california. on the right of your screen is the location where the los angeles sheriff's department is about to hold a news conference on why they decided to reopen the investigation into the death of hollywood legend natalie wood. wood was on a yacht with her husband, actor robert wagner and fellow actor christopher walkin. the details remain a mystery. i'm tamron hall. we are following the latest development on this stunning news. police announced the case would be reexamined. the captain said he lied to police about what happened that night. he spoke about his claims and said he believed